Designing a food truck is an enormous undertaking, a challenging task, but a crucial step that promotes business growth. After all we humans first eat with our eyes even before we even taste the food. A food truck’s design will be the first thing customers visually digest before they even look at your plating.
Note that the best custom food truck builders excel at design both in terms of vehicle construction, planning and lay out. As a new entrant into the business or someone looking to aim higher, your best bet is to work with experts who make educated food truck design decisions based on multiple factors.
In terms of building and designing a food truck, you have to take cognizance of the local requirements you are expected to meet, your business vision and truck menu.
You won’t want to underestimate the space and come up short, but you also don’t want to build too big and incur greater expenses, as a heavier vehicle uses up more gas. Some companies that build food trucks offer consultations, so even if you don’t want to let pros build it, you can at least hire them for consultation.
In terms of your service window, it is expected to be at an ideal height that ensures easy transferring of food and payment. In addition, if you have the room consider a custom window that plays into your truck design and create a fun feature that attracts customers.
For instance, if you focus on seafood, a fish-shaped service window would also create a memorable experience for your customers. Your customers would likely know you as “that cool trick with the fish window”. Also note that installing a counter under your window is also ideal for storing napkins, cutlery, and condiments in an easy-to-reach location for customers. Be sure to get one that folds out of the way for when it is time to pack up and drive on.
5 Factors to Consider When Designing a Food Truck Service Window
In the age of mobility, food trucks are a trending food service venue. Moving beyond the days of ice cream trucks and hot dog stands, today’s street food vendors are offering gourmet meals with exotic flavours and multicultural ingredients. To design and make your own food truck service window, here are few factors to consider.
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1. Understand the Regulations
The first thing is to conduct a thorough research and ensure service window design is within established guidelines for mobile food service. Become familiar with health department, safety and licensing regulations that govern everything concerning your truck.
Many cities have restrictions on the types and the truck side you choose for your service window. It might seem inconsequential now, but not following these rules could lead to a big fine, as well as having to completely redesign your truck. Better to do it right the first time than pay for it later!
2. Consider the Sort of Meaning the Design Have
Your truck design and the type of service window you choose to install don’t just represent the why of your truck—they should also clearly depict the “what.” Though your designer can choose some colours, shapes, and concepts based on the emotions you are trying to evoke in your customers, at the end of the day, the design should still be relevant to your brand and to what you have to offer.
Aside from influencing the way you serve you meals, a lot of food trucks in the United States benefit from displaying their menus on their windows. This can be helpful to groups with picky eaters, complicated dietary restrictions, or simply diners who want to make sure they have several options to choose from that are to their taste.
So the way you choose to design your window should also make the menu easy to read, and professional looking. Maybe you don’t want to put your entire menu up in your window. That’s perfectly fine, especially for restaurants whose menus change on a regular basis. But it is still important to highlight the kind of food you offer.
4. Don’t go Overboard
When it comes to overall food truck designing, it can be easy to slip into trying to do too much and having everything look like a mess. That applies to your service window too. If you put too much concepts or too many visuals in your windows, people won’t know where to look.
It would surely seem like you are trying too hard if your windows shout “Good steaks! Good Lemonade! Great atmosphere! Good burgers!” It pushes past being proud of your truck and into seeming desperate. Also, consider your customers! One of the pluses to a Food Truck is the windows that allow passersby to look in and see the kitchen and what you are offering.
5. Consider the Emotions You Want Customers to Feel
For instance, when a customer walks by your truck, what’s the first emotion he or she should feel? This is a tough one, because for most people, “hungry!” is not an emotion.
Note that a lot of food truck owners want their customers to feel happy, but you’ll need to take this a step further and get more specific if you want to come up with an effective Truck design. A well-defined “why” for your truck will help you figure out what emotion customers should feel when they see what you have to offer.
Best Types of Material to Use When Designing a Food Truck Service Window
One of the most important things to consider when you looking to design your food truck service window is the appearance of the window and the exterior of your truck. Your food truck wrap is a powerful advertising tool that requires careful consideration. This first impression can invite and attract customers to taste your food or get an idea of what your food is all about. An image says a thousand words.
1. Graphic Wraps
If you have a big window, window wraps can be a good material to use when designing the service window. Not only can those wraps be aesthetically pleasing, but they will lead the eye to the clear window. You just have to be strategic when you use wraps — what can you see when you look into the window and which part of the truck or sign do you want your customers to focus on first?
Don’t take the opportunity of designing a unique window to overwhelm your customer. But by the same token, wraps are available that are opaque from the outside, but translucent from the inside.
2. Vinyl wraps
Vinyl wraps are the most common method of designing food truck exteriors, and for good reason. Even though they can be quite expensive and difficult to install (there are people you can pay to do this for you), they’re great for building a strong brand. You can upload your logo and other graphic design elements related to your brand directly to the printer, which creates a firm foundation for a consistent brand identity.
3. Canopy
There are different kinds of canopies available to food trucks in the United States. These canopies can create an interesting effect. You can put different information on the canopy and also extend them to create enough room for your customers. It also gives you a platform to make your menu and offering more visible to the public.
Conclusion
Your graphics and aesthetic design need to reflect your cuisine, your market, the communities you serve and stand you out from your competition. There are some companies that build food trucks that offer consultations also, so even if you don’t wind up having the pros build it, you can at least hire them for a food truck consultation.